High Wire
by Skylark Evanson
Summary: "The circus is back in Gotham City." ... "And Dick is...?" "Not at the manor."


**A/N: This just came to me. Mostly the thought of it. Then the rest of it came along with it. I don't even know what this spouted out of… Just read. Also, based five years in the future.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters.  
>Side Note: Rating is only for language and slight reference.<strong>

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><p><em><span>High Wire<span>_

No, he hadn't heard the swoosh of the cape. No, he hadn't heard the footsteps on his carpeted floor. No, he didn't notice the slightly ajar window. No, he didn't notice the shadow that was aglow against the pale wall. Wally had a tendency to block out all bad things whether he knew they were there or not. So when he turned around to come face-to-face with the Dark Knight, he was just a little freaked out.

Just a little.

The redhead's first reaction was to shy away and cringe, waiting for a punch. Of course, had he been Kid Flash and even slightly prepared, he would've been punching or running. But where could he run in his bedroom? His closet? So West just cringed and stayed like that, waiting to get a face-full of fist.

"Wally."

It was that rough, gravelly voice that made the red-haired man relax his stance. "Bats, you _have _to stop doing that. You're going to give someone a heart attack one of these days. My bets are on GA since he's such a weenie all the time."

"Wally." This time, the voice was stern and commanding. Before it had been more of a reassurance; now the speedster could tell that the Dark Knight wanted something.

"Mission?" he asked, pressing a hand to his own chest. "For me?" His voice had taken on a slightly higher pitch, one that West knew would drive the older hero crazy. "Aw, Bats, you shouldn't have. I feel so loved!"

If it were even remotely possible, Wally thought he saw Batman's frown deepen.

"Alright, what's the shimmy?" asked the man who owned the apartment, moving so that he could collapse upon his bed before listening to the rambling rant he would receive from Batman. Sometimes he could deal with all the lecturing, but he wasn't really in the mood today. He had places to be, people to see, things to do. There was never a rest for Wally West.

"I have a slight problem on my hands that needs to be dealt with delicately, and I don't have the resources to take care of it myself." His frown deepened further. The speedster was suddenly questioning if this was a dream. Could Batman frown that much? Was it physically possible? He made a mental note to try that later. "The circus is back in Gotham City."

This was at first something that Wally cocked a brow at. Then he had to take a moment or two to process this. His mind whirled a mile a minute, almost as fast as his feet. "Haley's?" questioned the redhead. After a curt nod had been given by the Caped Crusader, Wally was doing his math. "It's been... Ten years?" He received yet another curt nod, this one even shorter than the first. "And Dick is...?"

"Not at the manor," said Batman solemnly, eyes narrowing behind his cowl.

"Find Robin?" The twenty-year-old rose to his feet and shook himself out, waking up his body so that he could make the run to Gotham. He wasn't too far from there with his new digs, but he wasn't looking forward to the travel an awful lot.

"I already know where he is. The issue is that he's there, and I'm trying to track Zucco. I can only have so many people in so many places." Batman's cape fell across his shoulders, covering the large yellow and black symbol that was stamped across his chest. "I would like it if you could keep an eye on Robin while I watch for Zucco. I don't want the bastard getting anywhere near that circus nor do I want Robin up on the high wire."

"I watch Robin, you watch Zucco." Wally winked at the older, darker hero and made a slight clicking noise. "On it." It only took Wally a heartbeat to disappear from his apartment and get out onto the main streets, bulleting between cars and trucks to get to Gotham.

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><p>"Hey, birdbrain," commented Wally after walking into the big top and automatically finding his favorite little raven-haired hacker. The redhead had taken the younger's neck under his arm and gave him a nice hard noogie just to piss him off. Put a little fire in the bird and then you get a challenge.<p>

"What are you do- You know what, don't answer that." The eighteen-year-old had quickly shoved away his best friend and tried to get his hair back to somewhat acceptable standards. The Boy Wonder, still a full-time sidekick to the almighty Batman, then had to give his old buddy a nice headslap. "You're such an ass, have I mentioned that lately?"

"You're such a kid," pointed out West as his lips curled up to form a knowing smile. "You're at the circus, dude." He knew his mission (even if Bats hadn't called it that) and was determined to get that kid out from under the big top before anything serious started. Of course, it was only a bit after three in the afternoon. Wally knew that he had plenty of time to get Richard Grayson out of there.

Dick grunted. He knew that Wally knew. The dark-haired teen wasn't as naïve as everyone always thought he was. It wasn't like the fact that Dick was from a circus wasn't common knowledge amongst the Justice League. That was just something that everyone knew. It was a given. If someone didn't know, they learned quickly enough and those who did know simply ignored the fact until moments like these.

"Tell you what," said Wally, giving his friend a little jab with an elbow. "I'll take you clubbing all night if we can leave now."

A smirk planted itself on Dick's usually placid face. "Clowns giving you the creeps?" he asked, tilting his head to indicate the line of them that were ducking out of the dressing room area that he had been in moments ago. Big floppy shoes slapped the ground, and the sound of honking noses filled the air.

Wally let out one little cackle. "I can take on baddies from Brother Grimm to Abra Kadabra and yet you have the guts to suggest that I'm afraid of clowns?"

The expression on Grayson's face became thoughtful for a moment. Then he said, "Yes, yes I do." A smug grin spread on his lips.

"And you call _me _an ass," West snorted. His green eyes flitted around the big top. He folded his arms across his chest and gave his friend a glance.

From what Wallace could see of his friend, Dick's startlingly blue eyes were intent on the wires of the trapeze overhead. His features were almost torn between dazed and sorrowful, his emotions mixing as if they had been thrown into a blender. The younger had his hands shoved into the pockets of his black jacket, the same one he always wore, and was obviously caught up in some memory.

The ginger was just ready to cut to the chase. Chasing was one of his strong points, after all. "Alright, man, I'll just get this out there. I get why you're here and all that. It's been ten years and all-"

"A decade to this day."

Yes, that creeped Wally out just a little bit more.

"Well then I'll be honest with you. Pops wants you out of here so he sent me to take you hostage." He was paraphrasing, obviously. "Now we can either play this nicely, or I can be totally rude and kidnap you. Take your pick, birdbrain. I don't wanna have to haul your sorry ass out of here, but if I have to, I will. I don't want to have to tell Batman that I failed. Who knows what Bat-weapon he would use on me!"

"Probably the Bat-electric chair," mused a serious Richard Grayson.

Wally's jaw went slack. "There's a Bat-electric chair?" Robin couldn't be serious... could he?

The Boy Wonder gave a little shrug and withdrew his hands from his pockets, his gaze still on the wires that had so long ago dropped his parents. "Well, it's not really anything special. It's just an electric chair, but we put Bat in front of it. Batman. Batcave. Batmobile. Batarang. It's a thing, you know?"

"...uh-huh..." Wally was still uncertain whether his friend was just fucking with him or not. Dick's stoic face made it hard to tell sometimes.

There was another silence that drifted over the two old friends as the clowns scampered past with a dog in tow. It wasn't very amusing for the two grown men, but something of that sort would attract children. Dogs and clowns were usually a good combination.

Wally knew he would have to start somewhere again. "Clubbing, Dick. Come on. You and me, a night out in Gotham with all the pretty ladies that your Pops hasn't played with yet. It's a big town, little man. Big, big town." Even the thought of that many chicks in this one city was enough to make Wally wish he had brought Connor and Kaldur along. Those two would've been sick at a party. And they were allowed to drink, which was just an added bonus. Those two with a little vodka in 'em... Wally visibly shivered at the thought of Connor with alcohol in his system.

"Clowns scaring you again?" questioned Dick. He was still grinning enough to rival the Joker.

"Wow, this coming from... You're an ass. I don't have a comeback for that." Wally's gaze flitted to the train of crazy haired hobos that were tramping around the big top's dirt floor. This place was ridiculous. How Dick had ever grown up in a place this... annoying was far beyond West's grasp. This place would've been Hell for him. Probably wouldn't have even lasted five minutes.

"I'm not leaving," said Richard with a calm air about him. "I've got something I want to finish here." Then his sapphire stare zeroed in on the face of the speedster. "Not even Bruce is going to keep me from this. Which also means that you don't stand a chance, Kid Mouth. So shush up and tell Bats that I beat the snot out of you, tied you up, and kept you hostage for the entire performance. He'll either be proud of me or pissed at you, hopefully both, but I'm more excited by the thought of the latter."

"I hate you."

"I think there's a fan club for that." His final words on the topic said, Grayson gave a satisfied smirk and stalked off with his hands once more buried deep in his pockets. No one, not even his best friend, would talk him down from this. He'd been waiting ten years; Dick wasn't about to give up this opportunity.

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><p>Wally did try three more times to talk his younger friend into a night out, just the two of them, partying with as many women as they could find and setting the night on fire, but Dick always ended up with a serious face, the only lingering traces of the boy he had once been in a smile that laid upon his thin, pale lips. The speedster wasn't getting Batman's little bird out of that circus any time soon and show time was nearing. No, West wasn't too awfully worried. He was confident that Dick wasn't about to do anything stupid. But of course, the young boy did have a habit of doing stupid things at the most inappropriate of times. Somehow, knowing that didn't bother Wally. Richard Grayson had always been a bit too serious about his parents' death under this big top to be doing dumb things by the same subject.<p>

The redhead had camped out in the crowd, his sneaker-clad feet kicked up onto the empty seat in front of him. Wally had been to a circus before, but that didn't mean he wasn't just going to ignore the whole show. He had to watch in case his favorite little birdbrain was going to do something stupid.

Vaguely listening and scarcely awake by the end of the show, Wally's jade eyes had just fluttered shut after fighting off sleep for the past half hour when the ringmaster stepped into the center spotlight and the name that West had been listening for rang out like church bells on a crisp Sunday morning. The ginger immediately forced one eye open before slowly peeling the other open.

"Ten years ago to this day, Richard Grayson's parents died in this trapeze act," announced the ringmaster, his booming voice booming through the speakers rigged all around the outer edges of the tent. "He was never able to set foot on the rig. Today, he has come forward from his privileged life as the adopted son of Bruce Wayne, one of our generous sponsors,-" (As if Wally hadn't seen that coming...) "-and offered to finish the act that was started so long ago."

The golden, shining spotlight swung to gaze upon the lithe form of the eighteen-year-old Dick as he stood up on the same platform as he had a decade ago before watching his parents fall from that tremendous height to the dirt floor of the big top; the pools of blood that had flooded around them flashed in his vision, but he had always been able to suppress the more violent and gruesome memories. Bruce had helped him with that.

In awe, Wally watched as the ropes on the other side of the tent began to move and shift as if someone had just leapt upon them. There was a bit of motion before the wires began to rock back and forth, getting closer and closer to the raven-haired teen on the opposite side of the big top.

Then the wires rattled again as if another body had joined the load that the trapeze was already carrying. The stretches of the thick metal showed no signs of giving.

Wally was only aware of the sudden astonishment that had washed over the ocean of people that sat in the crowd. His mind was piecing together the puzzle, but his gaze was struck by the people of the audience. They all watched in amazement as the trapeze moved as if by magic or by spectral beings.

There was a long moment where Richard wasn't jumping to join like he should have. His features were written in stone, his face as hard as rock. No emotions shone through the stoic outer shell that he had put up to protect himself. The Boy Wonder had to take a moment to judge the distance he would have to jump to clasp the hands of the ghosts that carried the wires to and fro. Then, with one last mental calculation, he leapt.

Wally almost laughed aloud at the crowd's suddenly frantic reactions; half of the women had utter shrill shrieks while men cried out warnings for the diving boy. Of course, West knew better. Robin was no moron, despite how often his best friend called him by that particular name.

Grayson had clasped the hands of the specters and swung from the high wire. The muscles that lined his arms rippled and tensed as he held onto the ghostly hands with that feeling of pure bliss he always got whenever he hung over crowds of people in a bright costume. Of course, this costume he wore now bore no resemblance to that of the Boy Wonder. No one could be able to connect the dots between the trauma of the child, his act, and Batman's protégé.

Dick held on until he swung to the other side. He wasn't afraid. He released the hands of the invisible specters and landed with a harder thud than he would've likes on the platform on the other side of the tent. He kept his back to the trapeze that he had just come off of. As the ropes kept swinging, Grayson's ears carefully traced the sounds until he knew it was the right moment. He did a quick back flips right off the platform, into the open air, just in time to have the hands of the ghosts grasp him in their heavy grip. And his act went on.

"Meg?" asked Wally into the open air beside him, knowing when the girl was there after years of working with her. He had felt her presence slip by and sit in the seat beside her; the girl was wrapped in her camouflage, invisible to the human eye. "John up there with him?"

Miss Martian took a moment, her breath escaping her. "Yes," she whispered softly, trying not to be heard by the awestruck crowd that lay around her and the redhead. "He came to us as soon as he heard they were in town. Uncle J'onn is up there with him while I'm the back-up in case something goes wrong." Her vivid brown gaze watched as her old teammate continued to soar through the air like he had been born to fly. "He had to beg us to help him."

Wally tossed a kernel of popcorn into his mouth before chomping on it. His jade orbs still followed his best friend through the air as he flipped onto the other bar, the wires jittering as he landed on them a little bit harder than he probably should have, his grip tight; West could see that his friend's knuckles were a snowy white. "This means a lot to him. He never changed his name to Wayne, never really lost the acrobat in him, never forgot where he came from." The redhead wasn't as oblivious as everyone made him out to be. He had noticed things about his birdbrain. "He could've left the past behind, but he's carrying it on his shoulders. His burden to bear, but he bears it proudly. That's why he had to disobey Bruce and do this." Another kernel of golden popcorn was tossed into Wally's mouth. "For his parents."

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><p><strong>AN: In retrospect, this may have been partially inspired by the song 'Livin' on a Highwire' by Lemonade Mouth. Some of the lyrics are things like "started when we were kids", "walking on a tightrope, no net, high hopes", and "I've been feelin' this life's a circus, hanging on without a fear". Yeah, the similarities are a little strange considering the song's tone in comparison to the story's mood… Anyways, review please? Thanks for reading!**

**~Sky**


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